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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Day Thirty-Three

While I felt relatively safe atop my cactus-circled pillar as I knew exactly what mobs were around me, I was sharply aware of just how easy it would be for me to fall to my death. I spent the entire night crouching, watching the mobs walk back and forth over the desert.

Nearly morning

So many creepers!

Oh wait. Some of those are cacti.

Muhaha!

Once the burning was over, one lone spider that had maneuvered around my defenses was left attacking my pillar. The creepers on the southern hill seemed disinterested in me. I dismantled my furnace and workbench and dug away at my pillar until I was low enough to shoot at the spider.

.

My saviors.

A fitting monument.

Atop my pillar I had seen that the desert did not continue east, instead I trailed off beyond the southern hills. Instead, my path leveled out onto a plain of dry grass.

Looking east.

I turned around at the sound of footsteps and saw the creeper a second too late.

Enough time to take a screenshot. Not enough time to prevent the inevitable.

I fell back as the creeper exploded, managing to only take two hearts of damage. It turns out there is a cavern beneath the desert, which is where it must have snuck up from.

Floating sand.

I resisted the urge to destroy the desert with a single swipe of my shovel. That would not be the nomad way. Instead, I turned and continued east. For a time the land was flat and unremarkable. Occasionally I glimpsed a northern coast and the ocean beyond. But for the most part there was just dead grass and the occasional tree until a narrow lake forked my path.

.

I took the northern shore as it seemed to lead more directly east. Apart from the water now on both sides, the land continued uneventfully.

Mountains ahead. (And a cloud that looks like a minecrafter!)

Beyond the mountains the grass was greener and forested.

Looking east.

I stuck to to the northern face of the next hill and came across an interesting monument. Unfortunately, the density of the trees made photographing it difficult.

A crazy overhang.

Check out the floating tree.

I passed through the gap beneath the overhang and besides the pillar. On the eastern side the overhang continued. Just beyond was a beach and an ocean branching off to the horizon.

Looking back from the beach. Can't see the forest for all the damn trees.

Snowy peaks to the north.

I crafted a boat and was on my way.

.

And in my boat I spent the rest of the day. Although land passed me by several times, there was always a clear, ocean path east so I stayed in my boat. There is really nothing else to say of the day, so instead allow the pictures of my afternoon sailing do the talking for me.

Around some islands.

Through a canyon.

A rather large desert stretched off to the south.

Island pigs!

A rather intimidating mountain on a southern continent. I followed its coast to photograph it from behind.

.

Looking back south-west at the mountain.

The ocean continues.

Islands ahead, but the ocean continues east.

.

Another continent to the south.

Looking east. I sailed a bit to the north and stuck to the sea.

Sun sinking behind me.

Looking south.

I had been in this boat for a long time, at least half the day. Now that the sky was darkening, I considered my options. I could always keep going; no mobs would attack me at night. But what if I missed an amazing landmark? No. I would continue to only travel at night. But would I spent the entire night just sitting in my boat? That could be a bit boring. I was ready to try sleeping atop a pillar again, but I still have bad memories about my night at sea. And then I saw my answer, just to the north.

Hmm. That is a convenient little island...

I pulled ashore and hastily placed torches around the island's perimeter.

.

.

As the stars came out, I still felt exposed. Being on land at night without a roof over my head just felt wrong. I had just enough dirt and glass on me to make a small shelter, and that I did.

Safe.

In a shelter on an island of torches in the middle of the ocean. This is perhaps the safest I have felt on my entire trip. Nothing could possibly go wrong here...

It might help when taking pictures if you use the new(ish) F-Commands. F1, for example, will remove the UI to clear up the screen a bit, and pressing F2 while holding F1 will take a screenshot and automatically place the image file in the Screenshots folder in your .Minecraft folder.

Thanks for the suggestion (and thanks to whoever it was that said it a few days ago, too, and I didn't reply!). I recently discovered those commands, but I thought for consistency sake I would just continue with the one I have been using. Also, as I am on a Macbook, it is more difficult holding down all those buttons (Fn, F1, and F2 at the same time). Still, I should get in the habit of using it for landmarks where I I don't need to take the photo quickly.

Hello! Welcome to Towards Dawn, a Minecraft tale not about mining, but about walking. Check out the About page for a more detailed description, or start reading from the very beginning.This is a side project of mine. I also write about games at Critical Damage.Mega thanks to Emma Arnold for crafting me up a little banner to brighten the place up. She has a blog and I owe her a plug, so you should go check it out!

About Me

Is a Media and Communications PhD student at RMIT University. Holds a BA in Writing and Japanese with Honors in Communication and Cultural Studies. Is a freelance videogame critic and journalist for the likes of Edge, Polygon, Hyper, Unwinnable, Gamasutra, Pixel Hunt, Ars Technica, and PC Powerplay.
Can be contacted at brendankeogh86 at gmail dot com or on Twitter at BRKeogh.

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Hopefully you enjoy reading my adventure as much as I am enjoying having it and writing about it. If you so wish, please feel free to express this enjoyment in some kind of fiscal way below. But also feel free not to! The wishes of good luck and shouts of motivation in the comments of each post are more than rewarding enough :).